206 people suspected to have died of toxic drugs in April, B.C. coroner reports

Preliminary data from the B.C. Coroners Service shows unregulated toxic drugs were suspected of causing 206 deaths in the province in April.

The new numbers represent a 17 per cent increase over the death toll in April 2022, when there were 176 deaths, and a four per cent increase over March.

The latest figures mean 814 people are believed to have died due to unregulated toxic drugs in the first four months of 2023.

The number of British Columbians reported dead over the seven years since a public-health emergency was declared in April 2016 has now topped 12,000, at 12,046.

The report for April says fentanyl was present in about eight of every 10 deaths, almost always in combination with other substances.

"Illicit fentanyl continues to be the main and most lethal driver of B.C.'s drug-toxicity public-health emergency, having been detected in 86 per cent of deaths in 2022 and 79 per cent of deaths in 2023," said Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe in a release.

'Unprecedented scale'

The report also said there was an increase of benzodiazepines — depressant drugs — detected in illicit substances. Lapointe said that was largely the result of enhancements to benzodiazepine testing by the Provincial Toxicology Centre.

Cocaine and methamphetamines are also often present, Lapointe said.

"This drug poisoning crisis is the direct result of an unregulated drug market," she added.

"Members of our communities are dying because non-prescribed, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is poisoning them on an unprecedented scale."

The B.C. Coroners Service said April was the 31st consecutive month in which at least 150 lives were lost to unregulated drugs in the province, and the 13th month in which more than 200 deaths were reported.

In a statement, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside said the crisis continues to take a toll in every part of the province.

"These were friends, family, neighbours and co-workers, and my heart goes out to all of the loved ones left behind in the wake of the toxic drug crisis."

Unregulated drug deaths by year in British Columbia

The total number of deaths in April equates to almost seven lives lost every day.

If the number of deaths stays at the same pace for the rest of 2023, it will surpass 2022 as the deadliest year on record.

"Rates of death remain extremely elevated throughout the province, with three health authorities — Vancouver Coastal, Island and Northern — reporting record high rates of death in the first quarter of the year," said a release regarding the new numbers.

Other key numbers

The new numbers released by the coroners service Thursday also reiterated trends for 2023 so far that have been hallmarks of the crisis. The figures for the year so far show:

• 70 per cent of those who died were aged 30-59 and 77 per cent were male.

• 83 per cent of unregulated drug deaths occurred inside.

• The highest number of unregulated drug deaths were in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health authorities, with 257 and 221 deaths, respectively.

• Northern Health has the highest death rate, with 62 deaths per 100,000 residents; the provincewide rate is 45.2 per 100,000.

Whiteside said the government is moving to improve supports, treatment and new models of care to try to stem deaths.

On Thursday she highlighted work being done to support youth in the province with addictions and drug use. She's promising 35 Foundry centres across the province, which provide mental-health and addiction counselling, physical and sexual health care, peer support and social services.

"Drug use is often the symptom of many underlying causes, including trauma," said Whiteside. "That's why our government is expanding supports for youth in our province."

So far in 2023, there have been eight deaths related to toxic drugs among those aged 18 and under. In 2022 there were 34, a sharp increase from 18 in 2020 and 13 in 2019.

"The injuries and deaths reported to us are as a result of youth accessing the illicit supply and they are typically using an array of substances," said Jennifer Charlesworth, B.C.'s representative for children and youth.

"Through our advocacy work and in-depth reviews, young people are advising us that they are accessing an illicit supply in order to cope with the trauma that they are dealing with in their lives."

Safe supply, decriminalization

Lapointe made mention of B.C.'s safer-supply prescribing and the decriminalization of small amounts of some drugs for personal use as two recent health-centred approaches to the province's toxic drug emergency, but did not provide statistics or information on how they may be helping.

Instead she reiterated that they are not doing any harm in response to what she called allegations and second-hand anecdotes suggesting the new initiatives are somehow responsible for the crisis.

Those allegations "are simply wrong," she said.

Correction to OPS deaths

In March the coroners' service said a total of two people had died at overdose prevention sites (OPS) in the province in the past — one in 2022 and one in 2023.

On Thursday, it revised the total figure to one, saying further investigation had ruled out that the other death had occurred at an OPS.